New head of school at John Bapst prepares

BANGOR – When classes resume at John Bapst Memorial High School in two weeks, students will find a new headmaster.

Melville G. MacKay III, who assumed the post in July, succeeds the school’s former leader, Landis Green, who accepted an offer to head Wildwood School in Los Angeles.

MacKay, pronounced “muh-KYE,” came to the private high school located on Broadway from Indian Springs School in Alabama. He was chosen from a field of 18 candidates and was the unanimous choice among members of the search committee that nominated him.

MacKay comes to Bapst with an extensive background in independent school teaching and administration.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Harvard University and a master’s in English education from the University of North Carolina.

A former Fulbright scholar, MacKay has 24 years of classroom experience under his belt, as well as experience as an academic dean, dean of faculty and department chairman. He spent the last five years as director of the Indian Springs School in Indian Springs, Ala.

Like John Bapst, the Alabama school is private. It does, however, have a residential component, which Bapst does not have.

Though the school year doesn’t begin for two more weeks, MacKay said he already has met several of the school’s roughly 470 students who have visited his office to introduce themselves.

MacKay comes to Maine at a tumultuous time for education. The state is in the early stages of a school consolidation effort that aims to reduce the state’s 152 school administrative systems to 80.

The consolidation mandate has given way to a great deal of confusion, even among some of the state’s most seasoned school officials.

MacKay said during a meeting on Wednesday at the Bangor Daily News that one of the first things he did after accepting the offer to lead John Bapst was to download the text of the consolidation statute.

Since he moved to Maine, he also has met with numerous counterparts from other schools and school units.

Although the consolidation plan does not directly affect private schools, MacKay said he is still working to determine what it will mean for independent schools such as John Bapst, which draws its students from more than 50 ZIP codes from as far as Castine, Dover and Dixmont.

The core of its student body, however, comes from Bangor, Orrington, Holden, Dedham and Glenburn, he said.

Despite what is going on in the larger educational context in Maine, MacKay said John Bapst’s priorities remain to provide a quality college-preparatory education for students and to maintain an environment as “a school where it’s cool to be smart.”

Though some see the private school as “elitist” and as “just interested in skimming the cream off the top,” MacKay said John Bapst enrolls students of a variety of abilities. It’s more about students’ willingness to work hard to achieve academic success, he said.

“Our interest is in making sure there’s not a mismatch,” he said.

The MacKay family’s connections to Maine run deep.

The family has vacationed in Maine for years, he said, and owns a house in Searsmont. MacKay and his wife, Laura, plan to live in Bangor during much of the year, he said.

One of their three children, Gordon, 21, is a student at Unity College, where he is about to begin his senior year. Their 19-year-old daughter, Scout, will attend the University of Maine at Augusta as a music major.

They also have a 17-year-old son, Tim, who will stay behind at Indian Springs School to finish his senior year.